selvaraja somiah’s twisted thoughts

Me, just an ordinary Penangite who spent a good part of my learning life in North Borneo and Kathmandu. I’m a geologist turned freelance writer who’s joining the blog sphere now. What I post are my general views, my ramblings, and opinions of my thoughts of what is happening in my country. You are welcome to write your comments, but seditious and racial remarks will be deleted. I am no big writer but will try my best to provide my thoughts with my simple English. I welcome suggestions and opinions on my blog so that it can be improved further for the benefit of all.

Archive for the ‘Malaysian Indian’ Category

J Jayalalithaa has not left behind a void. She has left behind a legacy. It is the legacy left for her by her mentor, MGR and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

The various DMK’s spawned by the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) of Periyar – the DMK of CN Annadurai followed by the Karunanidhi’s DMK, MGR’s ADMK, Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, Vaiko’s MDMK, Vijayakanth’s DMDK etc have something in common besides their antecedents.

CN Annadurai hailed from Conjeevaram (Kanchipuram) and was a Mudaliar. Just like my mother. The Mudaliar community was prominent in the Justice Party with its strong underpinnings of anti-Brahminism. Annadurai reduced the Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker call for an independent Dravida Nadu of the four south Indian regions to that for an independent Tamil homeland- Tamil Nadu.

The DMK made a strong showing in 1960 with its anti -Hindi and secessionist plank quite prominent. But Annadurai dropped it in 1962 on Jawaharlal Nehru’s personal appeal in the wake of the Chinese attack that year. Only the anti-Hindi plank remained (as it does till today).

After Annadurai died a couple of years after the DMK decisively trounced the Congress in 1967. He was succeeded as CM by MK Karunanidhi, a Telugu. The next CM, MG Ramachandran was a Malayali. Jayalalitha was a Mysore born Kannada speaking Iyengar. Vaiko is also a Telugu. Even Capt.Vijayakanth, now heading a near extinct party is a Telugu.

In India, few seem to notice or care about the irony of the standard bearers of Tamil sub-nationalism all being non-Tamilians. I am Malaysian, but sadly (for me) I am both a Mudaliar and a Tamilian but with no Tamil. A bit like Mani Shankar Aiyar whose familiarity with Tamil might be even lesser than mine.

This takes me to the fact that German nationalism reached its virulent high when it was led by an Austrian – Adolf Schickelgruber later Adolf Hitler. It is a strange paradox. The Soviet dictator and Russian supremacist, Stalin was a Georgian. Napoleon, whose French Empire ambitions plunged Europe into two decades of warfare was an Italian from Corsica.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a member of an oppressed minority. I am neither a Bumiputra nor an Orang Asal. I am not a woman. I don’t even come from an estate background; Indians from there are often discriminated against by the system including their own kind, the so-called elites. The closest I felt like a minority was when I worked in a semi-government body after uni, and felt the occasional tinge of discrimination against Indians. Still, that was minor.

In a sense, I can never fully understand the feelings a minority person goes through. Hence, any attempt to give advice to the minorities of Malaysia is audacious. None of us are completely qualified to comment on their situation, specially me.

However, a better Malaysia would require better leaders, something we have to work together for. We have to learn to vote better. We haven’t been doing so, and that is why we often find some of the most dishonest people in society right at the top. Perhaps we have a bad system, or we don’t know how to vote. Most likely, the candidates managed to fool us.

One way some politicians fool us is by playing vote-bank politics. They understand the emotion of oppression felt by the minority, claim to be their saviors and ask for their vote in return. The minority votes for the candidate or party in the hope that they will come to power and protect them. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. What happens is that the wrong guy is chosen for the job, someone who is neither competent nor honest. He is chosen because he is a symbol of hope for the minority.

However, decades pass and the minority remains as oppressed as ever. Of all the minorities lured into such deceptive vote-bank schemes, Indians are wooed the most because their community is one of the largest in terms of actual numbers. They are often believed to vote en-bloc. Also, as a community, they face significant oppression. Appeal to that injustice, and one can bring them all together, and hopefully, get a nice block vote for a politician. Yesterday during the MIC’s 66th annual general meeting Najib Tun Razak said Indians were BN’s fixed deposit. Najib said “In the 11th general election [2004], the BN had its fixed deposit in the Indian voters but in the 12th general election, the Indian fixed deposit moved from the BN bank to the opposition bank.” “Maybe our interest rates were not good in 2008 for the Indian fixed deposit votes, but over the last three years, I have raised the interest rates and they are making a comeback to the BN bank.” “The confidence on the BN government is back,” Najib said. See how pathetic and annoying this statement is, its really an insult to all Indians if they look at themselves as FIXED DEPOSIT.

Indians have been had. Yes, they have been fooled time and again by these politicians who promised the world, but kept them oppressed as ever. They may have given RM500 after 50 years, but they kept the whole community poor due to discrimination and racism. And yes, they have fooled the Indians the last fifty years or so. They kept them busy with the Tamil school debates, while they hid the fact that the community was going downhill and suffering due to their discriminative policies. While the Indians form just 7% of the total population, they account for 63% arrested under the Emergency Ordinance for violent crimes and gangsterism.

For when an Indian student doesn’t get a good college after school, and do not get a government job it doesn’t matter if he is Muslim or Hindu or a christian or even Buddhist, it still hurts the same. When police treat Indians worse than animals, the race matter. Indians rank lowest in national elementary-school examinations, about one in every 12 Indian children do not even attend primary school. When 90% of Indians cannot afford a decent university education, it isn’t the community alone who feel the pinch. We all do, and it is time to ask our leaders to fix the problems rather than create new, artificial ones.

I want to urge the Indians to keep the heat on politicians. Do not commit your vote or loyalty to any political party forever. Time has shown, they will only take you for granted. One should keep their vote floating, and in the end vote for the better (or less worse) party. Your vote has much more power if it can change over time.

The above, however, still doesn’t take away the fact that minorities face oppression. Laws should be in place to prevent discrimination, and culturally, Indians will have to become open-minded if they have any dream of seeing Malaysia as a developed nation. We as minority members have to be extra cautious to not hurt feelings of others. Of course, there have been situations where even the majority community has suffered because they were a local minority, for instance. In such cases, the communities should be sensitive to the feelings of others too.

We are at a unique point in Malaysia’s history. A significant part of the population is craving for change. Vote-bank politics and hating each other’s religion should be chastised and branded un-Malaysian. After all, all religions have stood the test of time and are great. It is our nation, yours and mine, that has to be made great now. Are you on board?

COMMENT Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, in his Deepavali Day message, asked the Indian Nation in Malaysia – a people without territory in the Diaspora – to place Nambikkai (trust) in him. If he wants to be given the benefit of the doubt, there’s little indication that he deserves it.

This should not be about a man, a personality cult, but a system. Leaders come and go, but a system lives on, a people live on.

Indians, others as well, cannot continue to be held to ransom by whoever occupies the Prime Minister’s chair.

Instead, they need to see concrete action on the ground to dismantle the apartheid-like structure that Umno has foisted on Malaysia.

Indians in particular are victims of this structure of evil which is a manifestation of racism – feelings of inferiority – prejudice (being against something for no rhyme or reason) and opportunism (the ruling class monopolizing all opportunities).

Deepavali is a Time for Remembering that the Government continues to take away from the Indian Nation in Malaysia what little they have in order to reduce them to a community of thieves, beggars, and prostitutes eaking out a living in the shanty towns so that some other people can look good and feel good.

Indians are bearing the brunt of government policies which works against them. If this process continues, Indians will become refugees in their own land, internally-displaced people confined to the shantytowns.

Indians first in Peninsular Malaysia after Orang Asli

If we go back in history, we will discover that Indians were the first people to be in Peninsular Malaysia after the Orang Asli who themselves made their way from East Africa by way of the Indian coast. Between now and the coming of the Orang Asli, there have always been Indians in Peninsular Malaysia. The Kedaram Civilisation in Kedah arose from more than a millennium ago on the back of colonials, the Pallavas, from India. The purpose was to act as the middlemen in trade between India and China.

Indian presence in Peninsular Malaysia predates the Thais and the present Malay-speaking communities – Bugis, Javanese, Minang, and Acehnese etc – but has been downplayed by politically-minded historians to a mere phenomenon of British colonialism from two hundred years ago.

Away from history, Indians in Peninsular Malaysia today find themselves marginalized and disenfranchised under the Umno Government which has lasted, by hook and by crook if not default, for 55 years. Indians don’t have even one seat in Parliament or any of the state assemblies.

The result of marginalisation and disenfranchisement has as placed Indians in an unfortunate position where even the little that they have continues to be taken away from them by Umno under administrative laws – government policies in action – and there appears to be no let up in the process.

Najib’s nambikkai focused on ballot box, his survival

It’s in this atmosphere of mistrust and distrust that Najib is pleading for nambikkai from Indians with an eye on the ballot box and his political survival.

An example, as pointed out by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi Legal Advisor P. Uthayakumar, is that no local authority in Malaysia will issue even a cendol licence to Indians. If Najib cannot ensure that Indians can’t obtain even a cendol licence, he has no business asking for nambikkai from Indians.

The civil service, at one time, used to be the bastion of support for Indians to the extent that they made up over 60 per cent of the top-ranking staff. Meritocracy reigned.

Today, it’s a far cry as the lack of diversity – blame it on mediocrity — in the civil service has seen the number of non-Malays decline to less than 10 per cent. This may be attributed to the fact that former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohd advised the civil service in his day to throw away applications from non-Malays. This fact was recorded in a PhD study by Professor Ramasamy, the present Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang. Rama was booted out from a university for the revelation and was invited by Dap to join up. The rest is history.

Najib has made no effort whatsoever to ensure that the civil service embraces the concept of diversity. Instead, we are being told that non-Malays are not interested to signing on and a great pretence is being made in wooing non-Malays. Ajak ajak ayam!

In 2008, Indians voted against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and helped the Opposition win by default in the face of an urban-rural divide.

Recipe for political victimization after 13th General Elections

This time, Indians are being asked to choose between the BN and the Opposition. This call makes little sense since the community has been effectively marginalized and disenfranchised as evident, at the risk of repetition, in zero seats for them in Parliament and the state assemblies. Hence, being forced to choose between the BN and the Opposition is a sure recipe for political victimization in the aftermath of the elections.

The Indians would be better off if they eschew party politics and coalition politics.
Hindraf Makkal Sakthi is engaged in talks with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). The ad hoc human rights organisation working across the political divide has a 18 Point List of Demands. http://hindraf.org/18-points-demand.html

Najib has jumped on the bandwagon and wants to engage Hindraf too. He forgets that Badawi, his predecessor, spurned the opportunity in late 2007 in the face of racist advice and suffered March 2008.

It’s not really necessary that Indians must be represented in Parliament and the state assemblies since such representation does not benefit them but only a handful willing to subscribe to tokenism and window-dressing. Hindraf calls it mandore politics, whatever that means. But they may have a point or two here if Indian legislators are afraid to even utter the word “Indian” for fear of being branded “racist” and losing their non-Indian votes.

It’s a no win situation.

Indians must flock to the ballot box independent of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and other political parties.

Indians must forsake party politics, coalition politics

This calls for voting against any Indian who offers himself or herself to the electorate at the forthcoming 13th General Election.

Indians must also forsake party politics and coalition politics and look at the track record of the incumbents and candidates who offer themselves.

Indians, being members of a 3rd Force which can emerge in Parliament to ensure that no one has a two-third majority, should not vote for or against parties or coalitions.

They should vote against incumbents who have not performed for them.

They should also vote against incumbents who have performed for them but have been in the state legislatures or Parliament three terms or more in a row.

Elements of the 3rd Force in Parliament: Sabah and Sarawak in general and the Orang Asal in particular; Sabahans & Sarawakians in Peninsular Malaysia; Orang Asli; other minorities; Christians in Peninsular M’sia; fence-sitters i.e. those who support neither PR or BN; the Indian underclass and other Indians; Youths including the children of the Tudungs; and Women including the Tudungs who are being enslaved mentally and being deprived of their human rights; the urban poor; and the citizenship-holding relatives of stateless people, special pass holders, temporary residents & permanent residents; and victims of loan sharks, banks – being denied access to credit — the Land Office, local authorities, the Courts and police brutality.

Deepavali is a Time to Focus on Victory over Evil, Light over Darkness.

Evil, keeping the Nazi holocaust in mind, is best defined as the lack of empathy.

Open Letter to Hindraf Makkal Sakthi

Borneo-based and led national 3rd Force in Parliament

Dear Waytha and Uthaya,

Johore may be set for interesting times as it faces an uncertain future as an Umno bastion.

Muhiyiddin is reportedly trying to do a number on Najib here by planning to get rid of Ghani in a bid to prepare for the post-13th General Election period. He must think that Johore’s and Mahathir’s support alone are sufficient to help him mount a successful challenge against Najib for the Umno presidency.

The Sultan should continue to remain above politics and not agree to bring in, as rumoured, Khalid Nordin.The MB should be free of palace control.

The national Opposition alliance meanwhile is spreading any number of rumours on its political foes.

Among these rumours: infighting in Umno (also in BN over seats); MIC will be alloted less parliamentary seats and state seats than it won the last time lest the Opposition wins even more seats from the party — MIC is set to lose Segamat, Tapah and Hulu Selangor — and the party to be compensated by other non-elected positions in government; the companies in the submarine case in France will be found guilty of giving out bribes for the deal. Mahathir, Mukhriz and Muhyiddin — the 3Ms — will be jumping up and down with joy as they will finally have an opportunity to oust Najib before the GE; Ananda Krishnan’s money meant for the GE has been frozen by India for money laundering (That does not seem to have prevented Astro from giving out RM 500 million to RTM a few days ago to improve services.); Syed Mokhtar’s money alone is not enough to finance the GE; Najib has either finished his RM 500 million from the submarine deal or is not willing to part with anymore money for politics just in case he loses the GE; Mahathir is not willing to part with any money for the GE; Daim Zainuddin is willing to finance individuals, not parties, provided they can be useful to him in some way.(How is he going to finance anyone without knowing who will be selected as candidates?) Taib’s money meant for the GE was frozen in Switzerland after the Bruno Manser Foundation tipped off authorities there; Umno branches have squandered the money given to them for the GE etc

In retaliation, one word from Umno making the rounds is that Azmin Ali is trying to get rid of Nurul Izzah Anwar from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and politics “because he fears that she’s eyeing his deputy presidency which she can win if push comes to shove”. Here, it seems that Anwar is keeping mum because Azmin has a “hold” on him. So, it seems that fugitive blogger-cum-fairy-tale writer Raja Petra Kamarudin — “I will eat my beret if I am caught lying” — is trying to unilaterally mount some sort of heroic one-man campaign for Nurul against Azmin. (Petra seems to be more disappointed that the blogs did not claim that he’s having an affair with Nurul and is instead giving that credit to that “ugly bugger” Tian Chua “when he — Petra — is more handsome”. He forgot to mention old and senile in describing himself.)

If politics in the country is in the shithouse, it’s a different picture on the economy.

Malaysia in fact will do very well but always in the long-run as it keeps bouncing back and not just on paper. This would be despite the politics and politicians because it’s tied to China and increasingly to India and it’s not just on the economy either but also on security which is the most important factor in creating and maintaining wealth..

We are no longer putting all our eggs in one basket or banking on the west and Japan.

However, we have yet to give the Indian community a place in the sun.

This factor, more than anything else is annoying India and the diaspora in more ways than one and thereby undermining our national security, and by extension, our economy and future.

By short-changing the Indian community for no rhyme or reason, we are literally sabotaging the economy in an act of high treason.The deprivation of the Indian community is Malaysia’s loss as it stifles potential and doesn’t do anything to unleash the creative genius of the victimised. The Indian community can produce more hotshots like Tony Fernandes and Ananda Krishnan if the Umno government stops squatting on them. All the country needs is another two or three people like Tony Fernandes and Ananda Krishnan to propell it into among the best in the world in other fields.

The Indian community nevertheless has turned away from PKR — over Anwar consistently denying the community’s role in the political tsunami of 2008 and labelling community activists as racists — but is unlikely to return to the BN. It remains with Dap and Pas because it probably sees them as the lesser of the two evils, the other being PKR/Umno.

So, Najib will hesitate in calling for the GE as long as he can hesitate for any number of other reasons as well but not, as stated before, the economy. So, the economy is not a factor at all in deciding when to call the GE. Najib’s alphabet soup recipes on the economy — GTP, ETP, PTP, NEM, NKEA, NKRA, NEAC, EPP, KPI etc — are just so much cosmetics, gimmicks and hype, if not pure, unadulterated BS.

Najib’s fear of losing the GE is there and real. He has been reported as saying that the next GE date is a secret like the Coca Cola recipe. Coke has kept its recipe secret for well over a century and will never reveal it. Is Najib trying to say that he will never reveal the GE date because it will never be held under him?

He has done nothing to bring Taib in Sarawak under control or reach out to Jeffrey Kitingan in Sabah by at least giving him a hearing on Malaysia.

Jeffrey is “equally dangerous” as Taib, if not more. He’s quite capable of pulling out the proverbial rabbit from the hat in the quest for the tataba, the magical wand of power which Umno wrested from his elder brother Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1994. The brothers are working together — “blood is thicker than water” — across the political divide.

Jeffrey, under his Plan Z, would go for all 60 state seats in Sabah and 26 parliamentary seats including Labuan. He expects the multipilicity of issues to favour his party even if the opposition in the state fails to agree to take on the ruling BN one-to-one.

Star is still work in progress in Sarawak under the United Borneo Alliance.

Regarding the national debt, the national Opposition alliance would of course continue to politicise the situation but the fact is that it’s not at all even a bit scary although our money is at present fleeing to Singapore on its way elsewhere.

If the Malaysian ringgit is at present falling against the Singapore dollar for example, blame it on the continuing national Opposition alliance’s rhetoric on the national debt.This is economic sabotage tantamount to sedition and treason. The national opposition alliance is meanwhile claiming that it’s Umno money that is fleeing to Singapore and weakening the ringgit against the Singapore dollar.

Perhaps that’s why Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali have been hauled to Court for their allegedly “wink wink” participation in Bersih 3.0. If they can’t be clobbered for their “sins” elsewhere, the modus operandi seems to be to throw anything and everything at them …failing to pay parking tickets, glaring at Mahathir on TV etc etc

The issue is not the national debt level per se but our ability and willingness to pay which is not in question right now but may definitely be so, as in Greece, if the national Opposition alliance is not careful with its mouth if and when it comes to power. We saw what happened in Greece. The Greek problem is economics only in the immediate and long run but more about politics in the short-run.

The national Opposition alliance in Malaysia, like in Greece, is likely to politicise the national debt level in order to knock Umno/BN (by then in Opposition if crossovers take place) in a bid to prevent it clawing its way back to power.

Values — property, shares, currency — will all definitely fall if a PR Federal Government is loose-mouthed in the short and immediate-run.

This is because we have at present a disloyal national Opposition, one which doesn’t know where party politics ends and good government begins.

We need a loyal national Opposition i.e. one loyal to the country.

In any case, some people with money to spare for rock-bottom bargains will be set to make a killing when values pick up — as they will — in the long-run. Perhaps Pakatan Rakyat (PR) can then collect 20 per cent royalty on such capital gains and windfalls.

Public and investor confidence in the short-run would nose-dive under a loose-mouthed PR Government, the foreign lenders would get jittery and recall their loans and given “the run on the bank situation”, Malaysia would have to run to the IMF for aid but not necessarily under a “tail between the legs” Federal Government. It must also be remembered that the systemic problems in the economy were not resolved by avoiding the IMF in 1997/98.

Fortunately, most of the government debt is domestic.

But what about the local lending institutions invested in Government securities which by then may be PR’s responsibility?

What the IMF would do, as with the other countries, is to take over Malaysia’s foreign debts to prevent a contagion effect on the lender economies.

Then, Malaysia would owe the IMF — in fact the Treasuries of the foreign countries/companies which lent Malaysia the money and not the IMF itself — and would be subject to strict supervision until the loans are repaid. It means no AliBabaism and Umnoputeraism (or rather PRism) and Government contracts and procurements would have to be open to all.

If the national Opposition alliance doesn’t politicise the national debt when in power, there would be no problems. The economy will not be affected then by the fall of Umno/BN from power.

Another, and more worrying issue is that the national debt is presently being incurred not in the genuine interest of the people and the nation but because the ruling elite are busy plundering the Public Treasury for themselves, albeit indirectly, while “if necessary enticing the Sultans in the process for political reasons”.

There’s a sort of “make hay while the sun shines” syndrome at work.

PR is waiting to emulate Umno/BN on this in Putrajaya but no doubt after the IMF, if invited, has left the country. They are all waiting to become super rich overnight at the expense of us all. Blame it all on the pervasive culture of corruption of the process and system.

So, the more things appear to change, the more they will appear to remain the same if we have a two-party system in Parliament.

It’s not enough to have regime change.

There must be system change.

That’s why we need a Borneo-based national alliance to lead a 3rd Force in Parliament to steer evenly between PR and BN, both the latter Peninsular Malaysia-based alliances/coalitions. Besides, the 3rd Force will be the best guarantee for Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia. This can be done by the 3rd Force getting the Federal Government to comply with the four constitutional documents and/or conventions on the membership, partnership and participation of these two states in the Malaysian Federation i.e. the 1963 Malaysia Agreement; the 20/18 Points; the Inter Governmental Committee Report; and the Cobbold Commission Report. Non-compliance renders the partnership of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia inoperable to the extent of the non-compliance.

This is where Hindraf comes into the picture as a crucial element in the 3rd Force and to focus on the 67 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia where the Indians decide.

There are also other 3rd Force elements in these 67 seats i.e. the Orang Asli, the Christians, other minorities and the fence-sitters who can help to make a difference for the better.

However, Hindraf needs to work together with Dap and Pas, if not PKR, on the 67 seats. It can contest under a Peninsular Malaysian chapter of the State Reform Party (Star), as earlier envisaged, to truly ensure the emergence of the 3rd Force in Parliament. Waytha’s intended return from political asylum by Nov 25 this year for the Hindraf National Convention at the Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur should provide a kickstart.

The national Opposition alliance should give way to the 3rd Force not only in Peninsular Malaysia but also Sabah and Sarawak or risk Umno/BN winning the GE by default.

If the national Opposition alliance refuses to play ball, hopefully the issues will carry the day for the emergence of the 3rd Force. The longer the GE is delayed, the greater the prospects for the emergence of a more respectable 3rd Force in terms of numbers.

Come elections Indians are the most sought after people. This time too political parties are queuing outside the houses of worship, houses of religious leaders, organizations, to woo the Indians ahead of the 13th General Elections which might be called anytime now.

Be it Barisan National or Pakatan Rakyat, they all are throwing bait to Indians.

Now even Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is doing the same. At the Taipusam festival in Batu Caves a few days ago Najib urged Indian Malaysians to ‘trust’ him to improve their lives. Najib emphasized on “Nambekei” (Tamil for trust) probably that’s the only Tamil word he knows but nevermind, but he also said Barisan Nasional government will fulfil all its promises to the Indian community and guaranteed that every promise will be delivered.

Indian opportunities
The Barisan National and Pakatan Rakyat are talking about giving more oppotunities to Indians if voted to power. Each party is trying its best to portray itself as Indian well-wisher. Such tall promises are not being made for the first time. For the last more than 50 years political parties have treated Indians merely as vote-bank to be used during elections and then discarded.

The conditions of Indians have been deteriorating fast. Rate of illiteracy is high. Their youth continue to struggle to get decent jobs in the fast-changing corporate Malaysia. Women education is abysmal. Overall their condition is worse than all the other races in Malaysia put together. To get over the situation, the community approaches ruling parties with begging bowl to give them opportunities as if it would bring an end to their woes.

Who is to be blamed?
Who is to be blamed for their backwardness: Government or the community? It is not only political parties that have exploited them, even their representatives mainly MIC and religious organizations have taken them for a ride. For a few bucks and a coveted post, they bargain with political parties, leaving the community in the lurch. .

The situation is chaotic with some religious organizations and politicians allying with parties that can help them ride up the ladder and allow them to bring in money just to build and to beautify and improve the facilities at Batu Caves so that it can become a popular tourist destination or to get RM4 million project for a new building for SRJK Batu Caves or organize seminars and symposium targeting the elite class. Indian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Mynadi and the Sri Murugan Centre are good examples and exceptionals. Nobody else thinks about the poor and marginalized section.

Making non-issue an issue
The situation is really bad with many religious organizations and politicians obsequiously surrendering to the ruling party whether it is the Barisan National at the centre or Pakatan Rakyat in states. In Selangor, two known religious organizations have sold their soul to the ruling government in exchange of a few million ringgit.

Raising sentimental issues have become a trend among Indian politicians and religious leaders. With election just round the corner many leaders in Putrajaya have started talking about opportunities for the marginalized Indians. They are not raising these issues because their hearts bleed for the Indian poor.The fact is they are doing so to cut a bargain with the ruling party and other political parties. Had they been their well-wisher they would have assisted the family members of those arrested under Emergency Ordinance (EO) and who are living in pitiable conditions in Simpang Rengam.

Community hijacked
The community has been hijacked by some opportunist politicians and religious leaders, who are just bothered about making money after coming to power or supporting certain political parties for their benefit. The middle-class has no time to ponder on these burning issues as most of their time is spend in improving their living standards and catching up with the elite.

The common and uneducated mass is left confused. With nobody to guide them they too become easy victims of political parties’ game, who promise them the moon during elections but deliver nothing after coming to power. When election comes, Indian voters prefer voting Barisan National as they feel that they would extricate them from poverty and illiteracy. Also, the voters are easily carried away by leaders’ skills to raise emotional issues.

The community has been severely hit by a leadership crisis. There is nobody who can dare air honest views. It is difficult to get hold of honest, sincere and well-educated Indian politician or religious leaders. Most of them have been co-opted by the government machinery.

The situation has come to such a passé that anybody with a few bucks want to be the leader of the community. Ironically, most of these messiah form their world and national view by religiously following third-rated Tamil dailies. Nothing seems to be changing.

The Malaysian Government including our great Minster of Home Affairs, Hishammuddin son of Hussein Onn, said that the Sunday’s 27th February protest march the “Solidarity Against Umno’s Racism” organised by HINDRAF (Hindu Rights Action Force) and Human Rights Party was a failure and loss of popularity among the Indian community. Maybe they should take a good look at this video below.

Anyway, it is time the UMNO Government wake up and treat the Indian community with respect. 53 years of suppression is too much! It is no exaggeration to say that the plight of the Indian community has long been ignored in this country.

It’s not wrong to say, the UMNO government has miserably failed to unite this nation. The prerequisite for this precious unity is fairness, equality and social-justice and this is not available here. Very sad!

Premier Najib brags about his 1Malaysia concept. But truly in Malaysia there is 2Malaysia. One for the UMNO Malays and one for the rest of the communities.

My UMNO Intelligence from Penang, Mohd Idris Othman, just got back from Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency and he is telling me that Umno’s reading as at yesterday is, Hulu Selangor will go back to Pakatan Rakyat and the margin will be a 3000 majority for Zaid Ibrahim. According to Idris also, even the Special Branch (SB) is saying that the Barisan Nasional will lose by about 2000+ votes.

The Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency has a total electorate of 64,500. There are 34,020 (52.7%) Malay, 16,964 (26.3%) Chinese and 12,453 (19.3%) Indian voters.

My friend Mohd Idris says that the Barisan Nasional knows for sure that the Chinese and Indian votes has tilt big time towards Pakatan Rakyat, and so has the Malay votes.

He also told me that Umno’s strategy the next 48 hours is to go all out in personal attacks on Zaid Ibrahim and Anwar Ibrahim. Personal attacks will become the mode of campaigning and also tons of money will be handed-out in the next 48 hours to shift the equation.

Of course, personal attacks of this nature is not going to help Barisan National win the seat, and even, dishing out money is not going to change anything, as the voters have decided a while ago. The voter are much smarter now. They will take your goodies and then ask you to fuck off. This will backfire for sure for the Barisan.

It seems, the hearts of many Indian voters has been slighted in this constituency and they are really upset by the way Barisan Nasional/UMNO sidelined G Palinivel whom they are familiar. He has been their 4 terms MP after all. They say at least, Barisan Nasional and particularly Umno should have honoured the BN coalition spirit and listened to the demand of a component party – no matter how insignificant MIC may be. They openly say that the Indians are treated like shit in this country. The cow head incident is also something the Indians cannot forget and its still fresh in their minds.

Then amongst the UMNO members there is this other problem, they wanted a Malay candidate to contest and some were campaigning for Muhammad Muhammad Taib to go for the seat. However, Muhyiddin Yassin the UMNO No 2 was not in favour of him, also including Khir Toyo the former Umno top man for Selangor was also totally against this idea. Muhammad2 Taib is still perceived as a threat to many Umno hopefuls as he is still very popular among the electorate in Selangor. Remember this year’s UMNO’s party contest, a very hard fought contest where Muhyiddin Yassin garnered 1,575 votes against Muhammad2 Taib’s 916 to become Umno’s new deputy president. The fight was intense and the scare is still there, don’t forget! This problem is costing the Barisan National the Malay votes.

The Chinese voters on the other hand are also really mad about the “Teoh Beng Hock” murder incident in the MACC hands and also what happened in Perak to the DAP state government. This is costing again the Barisan National the Chinese votes.

So Zaid Ibrahim versus P Kamalanathan is a foregone conclusion. Zaid Ibrahim will win the by-election with hands down.

With all this political drama unfolded, the odds now are against Barisan Nasional and my prediction that Zaid Ibrahim will clinch a victory in this political bout with ease, and with a 3000 votes majority, come this Sunday , is a reality.

A friend of mine says he hear voices all the time in his head and he says GOD is talking to him. He tells me he cannot sleep. He tells me he had just gone for psychological evaluation. When he told me I was a little shocked but I chose not to ask any questions. I figure if he has something to open up about, then probably best to just let him talk. But I was also bugging a little bit because I too was curious.

He said there wasn’t anything wrong with him and he just wanted to get some answers from me regarding the voices in his head. Maybe he just wanted to hear something else from some outside entity with no personal involvement whatsoever.

Either way it struck me as little odd. I couldn’t help but to think the work place may have gotten to him a bit or even his family or it could be a love affair which turn sour.

But he has just turned 25.

I couldn’t really understand why a 25 year old is going through this.

I mean he is so young, yes life just started and he does not have many problems but for some reasons he felt he needed psychological evaluation because of the voices he keeps hearing.

Then there is this 20-something year old girl who walks up to me while I’m having coffee with my friend Alex, somewhere in Kota Kinabalu, and tells me “Abang, I wanna kiss you now and if you don’t allow I’m going to strip here, you have been smiling at me and I cannot take it anymore”. I don’t even know this cute little thing, never saw her before, but she seems to know me. I was so shocked and so was my friend Alex. Never have I encountered anything like this in my entire life. Something very new.

I asked “Are we going crazy?” This is bananas!

I meant are we all just going crazy and we don’t know it?

I meant I want some answers too (but to what?)

Where do i start?

I can’t lie that sometimes I too feel crazy, wacky and weird.

But when I look and listen to my friend and the girl who came up to me, I just cant help but to think: “what if we cant pull it together and we just snap?”

Will we be able to prevent it?

Will we be able to pinpoint it?

Will we be able to express it in a positive way?

When I look around today I cant help but to take notice to the fact that there are more and more sadistic crimes being committed as well as more desperation, depression, scandals to say the least.

I don’t know if I am watching TV3 or reading the news or a tabloid sometimes. I watch the news and they are reporting on the death of Teoh Beng Hock while being interrogated by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) in their custody…shit! I also hear in the same news a Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu @ Aminah who had a secret relationship with Prime Minister was brutally murdered and her remains destroyed with C-4 explosives in a deserted area in Shah Alam, by some cops linked to the Prime Minister himself. Then there is a story all over the internet saying young Indian boys beaten to pulp by cops, in police stations, and a number of them even killed in police custody, like the poor chap Kugan, who was foaming in his mouth before death. I guess that’s news also. Just like how Anwar Ibrahim got his famous black eye from the Inspector General of Police himself.

When I think about the day to day it worries me and I become overwhelmed. Then when I think about the countless amount of folks who continue to go on each day, we are survivors of some of the most cataclysmic occurrences in history to date. Yet we are victims and very well may be perpetrators of even more indescribable events that have shaped our very way of living.

Its hard not to feel a little crazy sometimes or to feel like you are going to snap any minute because of all these stories and these happening right in front of us.

I mean whom of us is really exempt?

It could be because of an annoying boss or crappy job, a nagging wife or husband, kids, girlfriend drama, Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, $$$, bills, health or sheer bad luck or whatever or maybe just the day to day hustle and bustle of trying to be progressive and productive and forward our career or improve our life, or maybe we are just fed up.

That’s when the pressure builds up, and at that point, or at any given moment any one of us could snap.

Its been said that many of our political leaders may have been a little nuts or ultimately driven mad. And if we look today we can see living testaments to that in some of our leaders, to say the least.

I look out my window and I see Pulau Gaya, I watch the television, listen to the radio, read the paper and I find more than enough evidence to support the theory that we’re going mad. “Man kills wife, wife kills husband, lover kills lover, man jumps down from high-rise building, drug overdose, Mongolian model C4ed, law maker breaks the law and all these sounds like “THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END” to me.

The thought alone is enough to drive me to say “What the Fucks!

I mean its all enough to drive any “sane” person over the edge. But for us who think we are the “sane” ones I ask “Are we really crazy and just don’t know it?, how do we know, do we know our breaking point, will we be able to prevent it, curtail or direct it in a positive fashion? Will it bend or snap?

So will we resort to psychopathic drugs like ECSTASY…”K”…LSD..COCAINE, which is so easily available and which is the obvious choice?

THAT’S CRAZY! WHAT MADNESS…..360 degrees of Insanity

But funny it seems that it may be this same madness that drives us to succeed and pushes us to new limits and bounds that show the continuous evolution of human in society as a whole.

As my Late DAD use to tell me ” son, you got to be a little crazy to deal with this or put up with that”.

Happy Pongal To All ‘My Anbullangals’ And All My Wonderful ReadersWho Are Connected To Me By Love.

Hope This Year’s PONGAL brings tons of happiness….good fortune,And lights up your home with hope and prosperity….Today and Always!

YEN INIYA PONGAL NAL VALTHUKAL…….

A little about Pongal….

Pongal is one of the most important popular Hindu festivals of the year. It is a festival of thanksgiving to nature after the harvesting of rice and other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric. It’s the Tamils Harvest Festival.

Pongal follows the solar calendar and is celebrated on the fourteenth of January every year. Pongal has astronomical significance: it marks the beginning of Uttarayana, the Sun’s movement northward for a six month period. In Hinduism, Uttarayana is considered auspicious, as opposed to Dakshinaayana, or the southern movement of the sun. All important events are scheduled during this period.

Thai Pongal is an occasion for family re-unions and get-together. Old enmities, personal animosities and rivalries are suppose to be forgotten. Estrangements are healed and reconciliation effected. But this does not seem to be the case in this today’s world. Sad, but this is the reality.

Indeed, Thai Pongal is a festival of freedom, peace, unity and compassion. Thus, love and peace are the central theme of Thai Pongal. But is it?